silversmith
(ˈsɪlvəsmɪθ)
[f. silver n. Cf. MDu. silver-, selver-, sulversmit (Du. zilversmid), OHG. silbir-, silbersmit (G. silberschmied), Sw. silfversmed; ON. silfrsmiðr, MSw. silfsmiþer.]
A worker in silver; one who makes silverware.
| a 1000 Colloq. ælfric in Wr.-Wülcker 99 Ic hæbbe..isenesmiþas, goldsmiþ, seolforsmiþ. 1382 Wyclif Wisd. xv. 9 That me spute with gold smythis, and siluer smythis. 1534 Tindale Acts xix. 24 Demetrius, a silversmyth [1526 goldsmyth], which made silver schrynes for Diana. 1706 Phillips (ed. 6), Silver-smith, one that makes all sorts of Silver and Gold-Plate. 1794 Ld. Auckland Corr. (1862) III. 250, I wrote to you on the 9th of this month a sort of silversmith's letter. 1827 Southey Hist. Penins. War II. 476 Silversmiths were forbidden to purchase any articles in silver. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 146 The productions of the silversmith are principally the result of hammering. |
Hence ˈsilverˌsmithing.
| 1931 E. Wenham Domestic Silver ii. 8 No period in the history of British silversmithing manifests more varying foreign influences than that of the sixteenth century. 1969 T. Lloyd in R. Blythe Akenfield xiv. 222 There is something else I do—silversmithing. I learnt it at evening classes. 1981 Times. Lit. Suppl. 20 Feb. 194/5 Ashbee'n emerges as a many-sided creativity, embracing architecture, silversmithing and printing. |